A NATION CHALLENGED: WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

A NATION CHALLENGED: WINDOWS ON THE WORLD; A Showpiece's Survivors Wonder What to Do Now

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: September 21, 2001

David Emil, the president of the company that ran Windows on the World, the beloved restaurant at the World Trade Center, stood before a sea of faces -- busboys from Ecuador, dishwashers from Ghana, cooks from Bangladesh -- and offered them a smidgen of hope.

Someday, he said, not next year, but certainly in five years or six, he will open a new Windows on the World.

The 350 workers, almost all of them immigrants, applauded wildly. They are grasping for rays of hope after last week's disaster in which the restaurant's whole morning shift -- 79 workers -- disappeared with the towers' collapse and the jobs of the 350 employees not working that morning were wiped out.

''Our company is uniquely badly affected,'' said Mr. Emil, whose 107th-floor restaurant, thanks to its fabulous views, was a magnet for tourists, for weddings and for romantic dinners in which engagement rings were given.

While the law firms and financial companies that were in the twin towers are slowly transferring their operations to hotel suites or to sister offices in other cities, Mr. Emil cannot simply reopen his restaurant elsewhere in Manhattan. Its magic, its view, is not easily recaptured.

''Our company is out of business right now,'' Mr. Emil said.

Mr. Emil and the union that represents the restaurant's workers face three unusually daunting challenges at once: comforting and providing financial assistance to the families of the 79 workers who are missing or dead, finding jobs for the 350 survivors and figuring out how to create a new Windows on the World.

For now, the 350 survivors, drained and depressed, seem at a loss about what to do with their lives. No longer will they spend their days baking salmon, mixing salads, pouring Champagne and waiting on tables.

''I don't know how I'm going to send money to support my family,'' said Ramon Hidalgo, a 33-year-old cook from the Dominican Republic whose wife and three young children still live in Santo Domingo.

The restaurant, Mr. Hidalgo explained, was both a ladder of opportunity and a United Nations: workers came from two dozen countries, including Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Poland and Yemen.

Joseph Ameyaw, his eyes swollen from tears, is also trying to pick up the pieces. His wife, Sophia Addo, a 36-year-old from Ghana, has been missing since the attack. Like many of the workers, she was striving for higher things -- studying to be a nurse -- while making $345 a week working on the restaurant's housekeeping staff.

''I cannot sleep,'' Mr. Ameyaw said. ''I cannot eat. I lost a responsible lady.'' Each month, Ms. Addo sent hundreds of dollars to Ghana to support her parents and her 10-year-old daughter.

Union officials could not promise much in the way of benefits. There would be $15,000 in life insurance, workers' compensation death benefits and money from the crime victims board to cover burial expenses. The survivors were urged to apply for unemployment insurance and were told their health insurance would run out in two months. ''In no way to diminish the suffering of everybody else,'' Mr. Emil said, ''the people in the food service industry were probably least financially prepared to deal with this tragedy.''

He is urging contributions to the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, c/o David Berdon & Company, 415 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

Mr. Emil and union officials have contacted other restaurants to urge them to hire the survivors. But with the city's hotel and restaurant industry now in a tailspin, many restaurants are laying off rather than hiring. Still, many restaurants are contributing to the new relief fund.

For many survivors, their biggest hope is to see Windows reborn.

''We have to rebuild the World Trade Center and Windows on the World,'' said Asmat Ali, a cook from Bangladesh. ''I'm Muslim, and my personal feeling is we have to show these terrorists they can't keep us down.''

Photo: Relatives of missing workers from Windows on the World gathered at a union meeting Tuesday. The morning shift of 79 workers is missing, and the jobs of 350 others, from two dozen countries, were wiped out. (Tyler Hicks for The New York Times)